Eric's Blog

In the LA Times today, the message from State water resources director Lester Snow is an important one, that despite better than expected water supplies thanks to rainstorms earlier this year:

“We still consider we are in a drought and need to take special actions.”

The good news is that water deliveries to Southern California will be higher than previously expected; the bad news is that it is still well below normal. But that gets to the heart of the problem: the fact that Los Angeles is as dependent as we are on external sources for a vast majority of our water. Check out this chart that illustrates where our water comes from.

Rain is good, but only about 10 percent of our water is locally produced & most of this will wash away until we unpave more of the city. Unpaving LA will allow us to capture water for our own use instead of allowing it to spill out into the ocean. We need more green streets.

Certainly conservation and rationing measures are going to be needed to help solve our water shortage but we also need to invest in infrastructure and undertake the revitalization of the LA River including unpaving it and restoring vegetation and wildlife to the river.

As Vice Chair of the Ad Hoc River Committee, I’m proud to have been involved with instituting the Los Angeles River Revitalization Master Plan (you can download it here), which the city officially adopted in 2007.

Everything you could want to know about our plans for revitalizing the L.A. River, which in turn will contribute to solving our longterm water supply issue, you can find here.

Tomorrow night the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority will be conducting the next stage of their 2009 count of the L.A. homeless population here in Hollywood. Getting an accurate count of the number of people living on the streets or in shelters in our city is a crucial step toward getting the funding we need to ultimately end homelessness in Los Angeles. Essentially, what LAHSA is doing is taking a census of those among us who are living in the shadows. For them to count, they need to be counted and that’s where you can help.

LAHSA is looking for volunteers to interview homeless people both sheltered and unshltered in Hollywood tomorrow night. There will be an extensive 2 hour training at 8pm and then at 10pm volunteers will canvass the area in groups of 3 or 4 at a time to interview as many homeless people as we can to obtain crucial demographic data. LAHSA has more details of what the count will entail:

Homeless Demographic Surveys collect demographic data (age, gender, etc.) and descriptive data (length of time being homeless, services used, etc.) about homeless individuals in our region.

The General Population Telephone Survey seeks to enumerate the “hidden homeless”; that is, those who currently would not be counted via the Unsheltered Street Count or the Shelter & Institution Count because they are camping on private property, living in unconverted garages and garden sheds, and other such areas.

The Unsheltered Street Count utilizes volunteers to enumerate unsheltered homeless persons on a given night (e.g. living on the street, in encampments, in cars) in census tracts throughout the Greater Los Angeles area.

The Shelter & Institution Count estimates the number of homeless individuals and families housed overnight in shelters (emergency and transitional shelters, motels/hotels that accept homeless vouchers) and institutions (residential alcohol & drug treatment centers, jails, detention centers, hospital emergency rooms).

Getting an accurate count of our homeless population is a necessary step toward ending homelessness and coming out and helping LAHSA is a safe and rewarding way to give back to the community.

To sign up for the Hollywood count please contact Sarah MacPherson at the Hollywood Business Improvement District at sarah@hollywoodbid.org.

Since first running for city council 8 years ago, one of my goals has been to make government more accessible and relevant in people’s lives. There’s a debate in the country right now as to what the role of government should be. For me, at minimum, the government has an obligation to be a force of good in people’s every day lives; government should help those who can’t help themselves and fill in the gaps where the private sector falters, especially during the sort of economic downturn we’re experiencing now.

But government can’t do it alone. The private and non-profit sectors are part of the solution, as are our friends and neighbors, whether it be as volunteers, as donors or just helping out someone who is in need.

To that end, I wanted to share with you some crucial resources, a combination of governmental agencies and private organizations with whom we partner that can be of enormous assistance to our fellow citizens in times of need. Please, if you know of anyone in trouble, whether it be on the verge of homelessness, in foreclosure, on unemployment, please share the links below with them.

I believe it’s the responsibility of all of us to look out for our fellow citizens and government and private organizations alike have a crucial role to play in that.

• Healthy City offers a wide range of resources including housing assistance, healthcare, job training and education assistance

• The LA Regional Food Bank is devoted to fighting hunger in our community

• LA County Dept. of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Lifeline offer immediate mental health assistance and crisis counseling

• National Domestic Violence Hotline offers 24/7 domestic abuse crisis intervention services

• For those needing Foreclosure Assistance, please check out L.A. Neighborhood Housing Services and Operation Hope

• The Los Angeles Workforce Investment Board and California WorkSource Centersoffer job training assistance for those who’ve lost their jobs.

On Monday I traveled to Washington, D.C. with a delegation of Southern California elected and business leaders to meet with administration officials and members of congress and advocate for federal funding for our area. With 22 million people, Southern California alone is more populous than 48 states; 43% of all goods that enter through America’s ports come through Southern California; we have an unemployment rate over 11% and our homeless family population has increased by 28.3% in six months. My message to Washington leaders this week: investing in Southern California is crucial to the nation’s economic recovery.

It’s been an extremely rewarding trip and, I think, quite productive. Some highlights:

- Senator Boxer spoke to us about the job growth potential of clean technology and alternative energy.  We met with Energy Secretary Steven Chu as well and specifically made the case to him that Los Angeles is poised to be a market leader in green job training. We have a real opportunity to lead the nation in a green jobs revolution and I have no doubt that with Van Jones at the helm, California will be central to the administration’s green job investments. Chu challenged us to not just push for green-designed buildings, but to monitor energy use (and to push white roofs.)

- We talked to White House officials about the importance of an urban-based strategy for recovery, where a combination of public works projects, stalled private developments in need of public dollars, and strategic sector initiatives could help put people back to work in our urban centers. Cities are the economic drivers of our nation and for the last 8 years, we’ve seen investment dry up. I’m heartened to see the new administration’s commitment to the renewal of our cities. The stimulus dollars we’ll be getting over the coming months are extremely precious and can go further if properly directed to the right urban renewal projects.

- Yesterday we had a bipartisan lunch with 12 members of congress and Northern Californian counterparts like David Chiu, my equivalent at the SF Board of Supervisors. At the meeting, we discussed the importance of moving CA from a “donor state” (in taxes spent versus money we get back) to a more evenly-balanced state. For every dollar Los Angeles sends to Washington, we get 73 cents back. That’s got to change.

- We also spoke to Obama’s economic advisers about the importance of solving the housing crisis at the heart of the economic downturn. We discussed the need to focus on ways to write down mortgages on homes or promote short sales to forestall even more foreclosures. I had a great conversation with Rep. Maxine Waters about home foreclosure and eviction prevention.

Today we met with Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis about workers’ issues, Attorney General Eric Holder on public safety, Education Secretary Arne Duncan about education issues and Larry Summers to discuss the overall economic stabilization strategy. The access has been incredible. In fact, we appear to be among the few people having these meetings, getting this access, and helping shape policy early. I’ve just been really impressed with the amount and quality of time they’ve devoted to us and the very real commitment they’ve demonstrated to smart investment not only in California, but around the country to get us on the road to economic recovery.

I’ll be answering questions in the comments over at Crooks & Liars. Please come by and say hi.

UPDATE: Great chat online over at Crooks & Liars. If you missed it, you can see it all here.

Like many of you, I watched the Prop 8 hearing at the California Supreme Court today with great anticipation and emotion. It was great to see so many Angelenos come to the City Council chamber to watch the proceedings at our public viewing.

As I said earlier today, all of us — gay and straight — who care about fairness, justice, tolerance and equality are watching this case closely with the greatest hope for our state and our nation that those who serve to protect our rights and freedoms will see fit to do so for all of us.

We have stood in our city council chambers for justice time and time again, before there was marriage equality — we passed resolution after resolution for it — until we had marriage equality and on the steps of this building we had our very first same-sex wedding, which I had the joy of presiding over. It is heartbreaking to listen to this argument for any of us who have experienced the beauty of these weddings. For myself, I just got married in January too and I know, that which we have, nobody can take away. Justice is on our side, whether it is today or whether it is tomorrow. No matter what the result of today’s hearing is, no doubt the fight will go on but I am confident that marriage equality will be restored in California.

We had a great night at the Avalon in Hollywood last night. Thanks everyone for your support and for coming out to celebrate with us. Yesterday was the culmination of a trip that lasted for nearly a year, but it is merely the latest walk of an ongoing journey we started some eight years ago. Thank you for walking with me and for walking with one another. The next walk on our journey forward begins today.

Here’s some video of my speech from last night:

(This is Todd, campaign blogger, live from the election party at the Avalon)

People are starting to gather, the band is playing, the TVs are on. The excitement is growing. Polls are now closed. Results will be posted HERE.

More as we hear it.

[UPDATE] Early returns are showing Eric up 72.5-27.5! Other results:

Antonio Villaraigosa up with 57.3%

Prop B the Solar initiative is up by 6.4%.

[UPDATE] The band is playing an original: “Are You Ready For Garcetti?” Sample line: “Everybody hollar, everybody cheer, we’re gonna give him 4 more years!”

[UPDATE] Eric came out, played some keyboards, then gave a victory speech. “There’s a saying, ’show me whom you walk with and I’ll show you who you are.’ Thank you for walking with me. Our next walk begins tomorrow.”

[UPDATE] Results have been updated as of 10:12pm. So far, 92% of mail-in ballots and 8% of in-person ballots have been counted. Eric is holding strong with a 71-29 lead. Villaraigosa and Measure B are clowly gaining strength.

[UPDATE] As more in-person ballots get counted, Villaraigosa and Prop B keep gaining steam. All props at the moment are ahead. We’re looking at run-offs in the City Attorney race and City Council 5 where Paul Koretz and David Vahedi are currently leading a tight field. All mail-in ballots and just 14.82% of in-person ballots have been counted.

[UPDATE] As of 1:46am with 99.93% reporting, Eric has been re-elected with 72% of the vote; Antonio Villaraigosa has been re-elected with 55.56%. There will be a run-off in the 5th council district between Paul Koretz and David Vahedi; there will be a run-off in the City Attorney race between Jack Weiss and Carmen Trutanich. Also, it looks like Measures A, C & D have passed. Surprisingly, Measure B, the solar initiative, has apparently failed by a mere 1300 votes.

I voted at 7:15 this morning. Turnout at my polling location looked to be slow but steady.

Polls will be open until 8pm tonight. If you’re not sure where to vote, you can look it up here. Then be sure to join us at our election night party at the Avalon. Details are here.

What was your voting experience like today? Hearing of or seeing any problems at the polls?

Remember, parking restrictions will be loosened near polling places to make it a bit easier to vote. Please remind your friends and family to get to the polls.

Thanks, everyone, for your support!

We had a great turnout at the Fountain/Western Ave. Community Garden work day on Saturday. It was a beautiful morning and more than 100 folks showed up to show their commitment to the community by pitching in to build the new community garden that our office spear-headed with the help of L.A. Works and Home Depot. This garden will not only beautify a previously vacant lot, but it will also serve as an urban oasis for members of the community to meet and work together, get some fresh air and provide a source of fresh fruits and vegetables for the community.

As Bob Johnson, founder and chair of L.A. Works, said on Saturday, our new president has called us to service and it was particularly heartening for me to see so many young people heed that call at such a local level.

For more opportunities to help your community, check out LAWorks.com.

Here’s a short video we put together at the event: